SII's Covovax To Be Available As Heterologous Booster On CoWIN Portal, Each Dose To Cost Rs 225: Report

Covovax, a vaccine developed by technology transfer from Novavax, is likely to be available on the CoWIN portal in a few days. People can avail the vaccine dose at a price of Rs 225 per dose.

Pune-based pharmaceutical firm Serum Institute of India’s (SII’s) Covid-19 vaccine Covovax will be included on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya approved the vaccine’s inclusion, news agency PTI reported, quoting official sources. The decision comes at a time of rising Covid-19 cases in India.

According to a PTI report, Covovax, a vaccine developed by technology transfer from Novavax, is likely to be available on the CoWIN portal in a few days. People can avail the vaccine dose at a price of Rs 225 per dose, along with GST.

On March 27, 2023, the director of SII, Prakash Kumar Singh, had written a letter to the Union Health Ministry, stating that Covovax has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), and must be included on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults.

People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with either Covishield or Covaxin can receive Covovax as a booster dose. 

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On January 16, 2023, the DCGI approved the market authorisation for Covovax for people who have received two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.

On June 28, 2022,the DCGI approved restricted emergency use of Covovax in children aged seven to 11 years, subject to certain conditions. On March 9, 2022, the vaccine was approved for restricted emergency use in children belonging to the age group of 12 to 17 years. On December 28, 2021, Covovax was approved for restricted emergency use in adults. 

SII’s Covovax is a nanoparticle-based vaccine. It is being manufactured by technology transfer from Novavax. Covovax is approved by the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorisation, and has been granted emergency use listing by the WHO.

What Is A Nanoparticle-Based Vaccine? 

A nanoparticle-based vaccine is one in which the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which is a part of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, is attached to a protein designed to form nanometre-sized protein particles, or nanoparticles, according to a study by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was published in the journal, Nature. SARS-CoV-2 attaches itself to cells using the spike protein.

These nanoparticles could be composed of lipids, metal and non-metal inorganics, several polymers, and virus-like particles which have been tested for research, according to a study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), NIH. Virus-like-particles (VLP) are self-assembling nanoparticles lacking infectious nucleic acid.